Saturday, May 04, 2013

Ex-priest faces extradition and trial over abuse

A FORMER priest, who was exposed in the Murphy Report as a serial sex abuser, is expected to be extradited from the UK to Ireland to face a raft of indecent-assault charges.

A judge in London yesterday ordered that Bill Carney be sent back to Ireland, where he is expected to be charged with 34 offences.

The 73-year-old was described in the 2009 Murphy report into clerical abuse as "a serial sexual abuser of children, male and female".

He pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two altar boys and was given the Probation Act in 1983. He was defrocked in 1992. Since then he has been living in England and Spain.

Assault

Carney was arrested in Bidford- on-Avon in Warwickshire last week on foot of a European arrest warrant.

The 34 allegations of indecent assault are said to have happened between 1977 and 1989 to 10 complainants – eight male and two female.

Westminster Magistrate's Court in London yesterday heard solicitor for Carney, Fadi Daoud, say that the former priest had a heart problem.

Judge Nicholas Evans ordered his extradition and remanded him in custody in the meantime. 

Carney has seven days in which to appeal.

The Murphy report dedicated 40 pages to Carney, saying that his was one of the worst cases which was investigated and heavily criticised the church's handling of the case.

A psychiatric assessment of Carney, detailed in the report, stated that he suffered from a "psychopathic personality disorder".

After his internal conviction under Canon law of child sexual abuse in 1992, he moved to Cheltenham and then to Scotland, where he married and ran a guesthouse.